Sunday, May 13, 2012

A Very Tall, Buttery Pound Cake ~ Mother Taught Me How

My mother would serve a piece of cake to you, then immediately rip it out of your hand so she could
examine the texture...always a big concern of hers. Now, my children
complain they can't enjoy anything I make without my barraging them
with questions about it...like mother, like daughter, I guess!

I have a cute little story to share with you: When we were young, we had a neighborhood grocery store. My mother sent my sister (she was probably about seven or eight years old) to the store to get a pound cake. She was gone quite a while; and when we checked on her, she was weighing every cake in the store to find one that weighed exactly one pound! We submitted this story to the local newspaper's magazine section, and it was printed along with a cartoon drawing of her weighing the cakes...which we felt looked just like her, ponytail and all!

I adapted this pound cake from a recipe I found in the
newspaper many years ago, and it has quite a history. The Reverend Beverly Asbury named his cake The Bishop Asbury Pound Cake.
There was a Bishop Francis Asbury; however, Reverend Beverly Asbury was
unaware of any family connection. This is as close as I've seen to a
true pound cake, which would actually have one pound each of the main ingredients. It's tender and buttery and definitely the tallest and richest pound cake I've made...so, if you want to wow everyone with your pound cake, this would be it!

Oh, Wow!

That's One Tall Cake!

Approximately 12 large servings

Ingredients

Non-stick baking spray

1 lb. butter with salt (4 sticks - or - 2 cups), room temperature

4 c. sugar

2 c. eggs (about 10 large or 8 extra large), room temperature

2 TB fresh lemon juice

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/8th tsp. ground mace spice

4 c. all-purpose plain flour, sifted (In the South, we use White Lily--it is ideal for creating light and fluffy baked goods, as it is milled from only 100% pure, soft, red winter wheat.)

Lay a sheet of aluminum foil on the rack below the one you will bake the cake on, just in case your pan leaks a little grease and/or cake batter.

Preheat the oven to 325º.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl.

Using a medium mixer speed, add the eggs one at a time just until the yellow disappears...be careful not to over mix! Scrape the bowl again.

Add the lemon juice and vanilla.

Whisk the mace into the flour and incorporate about 1 c. of the dry ingredients at a time to the batter.

Scrape the bowl one last time and give the batter a little extra mix.

Pour the batter into the pan* and bake for approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted and the cake springs back when gently pressed with your finger.

Cool overnight. (For a moistcake, Mother instructed me to cover it with a clean dish towel and let "sweat" while cooling.)

Gently run a very thin-bladed knife around the edges and tube of the pan, then invert the cake onto a serving dish. Carefully remove the tube and wax paper, if used.

*Tip:Mother taught me to achieve a pretty texture in a cake, run a knife in opposite directions through the
batter; but since the pan I use for this cake has a removable tube, I don't run it all the
way to the bottom of the pan. Also, when I use my pan with a removable tube, I skip the next step which would be to drop your filled cake pan(s) on the counter a few times to release air bubbles. When I do drop any cake pan(s) with batter on the counter, I always land up with batter on my ceiling, or unpredictable places, but I surely do have a cake with a pretty texture! Pound cakes are best when you let them rest a day or two, and they freeze great (which makes them even more moist)! I like to serve this wonderfulpound cake as shortcake with a premium vanilla ice
cream and/or whipped cream with crushed strawberries or fresh, sliced peaches. See myBlack Forest Cherry Trifle for preparing the whipped cream. For the strawberries, I just wash, remove the stems, slice, crush and serve with no added sugar! Also, don't hesitate to enjoy this cake plain or toasted with a good cup of coffee.

Having a good pound cake around is a Southern must...it's so versatile and perfect for drop-in guests!

44 comments:

Love the little story, how cute and sweet it is! And this pound cake does look awesome, it must taste buttery and delicious. I think it will definitely make every mom feel proud of! Thanks for sharing the cute story and this beautiful cake :-)

That is one gorgeous pound cake Bonnie! I don't think I have ever seen one that big and tall! And I LOVE the story about your sister weighing the cakes--how cool that the newspaper printed the story with a cartoon!

Beautiful texture, moist, dense, and buttery. Baked this yesterday, and I had to add 30 minutes to the 1hr-45min for the pick to come out clean. Oven temp was right, checked it with two thermometers. It's a mystery. But this cake is the closest to the pound cakes I remember from my youth as any I have tried. Thanks for sharing it.

Hi Marsha! That is odd about the length of time your cake took to cook. My sister made it with perfect results. I'm not a food scientist; but when I had my house, I had the ovens calibrated by a technician. I see you used two thermometers...I know some are more accurate than others. I'm so glad you liked it, even though it took longer for yours to cook. Thanks for sharing your experience...please visit often!

I just feel better if it sits overnight. I know then that it will be completely cooled and will release without coming apart. Also, it will not be gummy inside. I would say that it should be cooled a minimum of two hours. If you release a pound cake too early, it might taste good (warm), but differently. However, it may not release well, or it could crush easily and perhaps be a little gummy. Always cut a cake with a serrated knife, taking care not to smash the cake as you slice it! Thanks for your inquiry and reading my blog...good luck and enjoy!

I used a 10" tube pan with a removable insert. Normally, this pan would be used for angel food cakes. Some angel food cake pans are one piece and don't have a removable insert. In my recipe, I recommended not using a Bundt pan, as the batter would overflow. If that's the only tube pan you have, you might try removing some batter (obviously, the cake would not be as tall as the one photoed). I've not made this cake in a Bundt pan, so I can't recommend how much batter to remove. Thank you for visiting my site and your inquiry. Please visit often, and I hope you enjoy!

Hi Dee! Yes, it will help make the cake more moist, and it will not stick if you prepare the pan as I suggested. It will release easier if completely cooled overnight. Thank you for your question and have fun at the reunion! Please visit often!

Yes, I would! Please see my reply to "Anonymous" dated July 20, 2017. I would also encourage you to read my reply to "Anonymous" 9/20/17. Thank you for your question and visiting my site...I hope you visit often. Enjoy your cake! :)

Hi! I like to use mace spice in a lot of my recipes. It has a subtle flavor that some would find difficult to identify, yet it very pleasantly flavors the recipe. I prefer mace in this cake, but you could substitute ground nutmeg for something similar. The recipe already calls for vanilla and lemon juice. Thank you for your inquiry and enjoy!

I love this cake! The texture and flavor is awesome. Loved your story, too! Reminds me of when we had 3 children under 5 & husband's employ was bragging about how clean his wife kept their house. He said she kept it so clean you could eat off the floor. My husband said yea, you could eat off his wife's floor, too and even the ceiling, too. I never saw any cake, tho. Hahahaha...

Hi! So glad you love this cake and got a kick out of the story! I imagine his wife may have insisted on eating out a lot! Mother would say that lady's house didn't look lived in! Thanks for sharing such a delightful comment...it was fun to hear your story too! �� Enjoy the cake and come back again real soon! ��

Hello Johnnie! So happy you share my love of baking! This indeed is the pound cake recipe to use if you really want a tall cake, plus it's so scrumptious! Thanks so much for your comment and visiting. Have fun baking this weekend and enjoy!

I have had very good success with the non-stick baking spray and find it easier to use. However, if you prefer the using the shortening and dusting with flour, I say go for it! Thanks so much for visiting and your comment. Please visit often and enjoy!

So sorry, Lori, that I am just finding your question. It was buried within a lot of spam comments. In reply, I prefer ground mace and ground nutmeg would be the closest substitute. I have not tried ground cardamom in this recipe; however, it might be an interesting spice with which to experiment. If you use it in this pound cake, please let me know how you liked it. Thank you for visiting and happy baking!

Hi @Mamie, Draw lines about 1/2" apart with a knife. As I said in the recipe, in a tube pan, I don't run the knife all the way to the bottom or drop the cake on the counter to release the bubbles. Hope you enjoy the cake and thanks for visiting!

Thank you Jill from Dulce Dough!

Contact Form

Name

Email
*

Message
*

Bonnie Banters is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Further Disclosure

This site may also contain other affiliate links. If you click one of those links and purchase a product, I may earn a small commission.
Notice Regarding Online Behavioral Advertising:
We allow third party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit this site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g. click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice visit the NAI at http://www.networkadvertising.org. To opt-out of this type of advertising, you can visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices.